Catalyst Insight Collective

Catalyst Insight Collective is a mental health practice in St. Anthony, Minnesota, on the edge of Minneapolis, offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) alongside talk therapy, psychedelic integration and integrative medicine. It also provides Spravato for hard-to-treat depression, psychiatric medication management and a KAP training for clinicians.

Approach

Ketamine is given mainly by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. A medicine session lasts about two hours in the clinic, with a therapist present throughout, and clients can use an eye mask and music if they wish. Each session sits between preparation and integration meetings, where the experience is worked through by talking, journaling and other practices. The therapists draw on somatic work, parts work, Brainspotting, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness, and the practice calls its stance person-centred and collaborative.

Who it is for

The team lists anxiety, depression, PTSD and complex trauma, substance use, eating disorders, existential crises, life transitions and consensual non-monogamy among its areas, along with making sense of earlier psychedelic experiences.

Practical details

A KAP course usually involves three to twelve medicine sessions, with at least two preparation and two integration sessions. Out of pocket, a diagnostic assessment or a 50-minute preparation or integration session costs $150, and a two-hour KAP session $450 by subcutaneous or $550 by intramuscular injection. The practice is in network with several insurers for mental health care, which may cover everything except the ketamine sessions, and it invites people to agree a price that works for them.

Care and safety

Intake starts with a free phone consultation, then forms and consent, a diagnostic assessment and a medical intake with one of the physicians the practice works with. The clinicians include licensed professional clinical counsellors, and Dr Shawn Olson is a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician. Uncontrolled high blood pressure, some heart conditions and active psychosis may rule ketamine out.